First priority

THE Electoral Commission's first and most urgent priority should be to appoint a Supervisor of Elections, says Labour leader Mahendra Chaudhry.

Mr Chaudhry said the supervisor was the executive head of the Elections Office and should have a major say in the formulation of the Electoral Decree currently under consideration.

He said this while responding to the announcement by Electoral Commission chairman Chen Bunn Young that the appointment of a Supervisor of Elections had been deferred because the commission was too busy reviewing the draft Electoral Decree. Mr Chaudhry said the deferment was "ridiculous".

On the issue of the electronic copy of the voter roll not being released to political parties, he said the soft copies were held by the government and would be made available to Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama's party should he form one.

He asked how Mr Young would stop that from happening.

Mr Young said he was not aware whether the electronic copies would be given to the parties.